a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Game 47 vs. DAL: AK-47 WILL Break You

I don’t know what it was that finally brought the team together, but these guys are playing the best basketball of the post-S2M era, and they are not only winning games, but they are competing and hustling and spoiling our eyes with highlights along the way.

It was basically a 5-point game either way through the first three quarters. The Jazz came out hustling in the 4th, however, with CJ tipping in his own miss, Ronnie P stealing the ball from Kidd, and AK tipping in a Sap miss in the first 75 seconds to take a 6-point lead. Several minutes of scoring futility for both teams followed, but the momentum shifted the Jazz’s way for good when AK stole the ball from Barea with seven minutes left and converted a three-point play. On the ensuing possession, Sap stole the ball and OMSW got another “hoop and harm.” All of a sudden, the Jazz had a 12-point lead.

The Jazz then proceed to miss three long jumpers, including two 3’s by Deron and CJ. Just as I was connecting palm to face, Sap blocks a Terry layup, AK gets the board and passes it to Deron, and Deron passes it back to AK for the “hammeringest hammer dunk” (as Shums put it) that was hammered down since #32 was on the court. I swear, that dunk was so freaking loud I half-expected the ball to come popping out of my speakers. AK ran back down the floor grinning from ear-to-ear, and did I grin along with him.

There was no stopping AK anymore. By now, he was just toying with the Mavs, and everyone could see it. Carlisle tried calling time out, but Andrei stole the ball from the Mavs on the next two Mavs possessions*, and one minute later, Carlisle waved the white flag by subbing out the starters…Jazz win 104-92.

Stuff:
–I adore the AK (4 steals)-Sap (4 blocks) combo.
–Sap had another Manly Power Forward game with 25/9, while Deron racked up 18/15/7R.
–Have to give it up to Ronnie B for playing through pain (bruised ribs suffered in the first half).
–Did someone say OMSW? That’s Oh My Sweet Hustley to you. And just as a matter of fact, Jason Terry didn’t score a bucket in the second half when Hustley was on him.
–Did Jerry forget KK is on the team? Kyle didn’t get into the game tonight.
–CJ made as many shots as bad shots he took, but otherwise did well enough that Jerry left him out there today.
–Memo was not Moneyman Memo, but I guess decent.
–I’d love to see how a Sundiata/Ronnie P backcourt (a la Maynor/Deron) looks.

*At this point, my heart was about to give out because it couldn’t handle the overflowing love for AK that was pouring through it. Some people might say that the amount of love I express for AK is unproportional to his contributions in x game, but Andrei is the only current Jazz player I have an emotional attachment to, and it’s my blog, and I can say what I want, so there. ;-)